28 April: Como

Today we played 'spot the tourist'. It's a bit harder than just spotting them, you also have to guess where they are from. You get marks off if you wait for them to speak. Wearing a belly bag and a large but practical hat? Probably American. Pasty skin and walking gear? Probably Brits. Trouser legs don't quite reach the shoes, and women wearing masculine-styled clothes? Probably Germans. Man wearing jandals? Probably Australian.

Ok, that's enough of 'spot the tourist'. We spotted quite a few today on our boat trip aroud Lake Como. We had lunch at Menaggio, where Mum had a wander around the lake side and I went for a walk up the hill to try and catch a good view. Then it was on to Bellagio, which was a bit too crowded for us to really enjoy, then back to Como.

Start of the trip. Spot the kiwi tourist with NZ map T-shirt.

Lake Como

Menaggio

Bellagio (shot of the day #1)

Shot of the day #2


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Since dinner took so long to order, eat, and pay for last night, tonight we opted to get some food d'asporto (take away) from a kiosk in the park by the lake. While we were eating we saw some children playing a game. It looked like kind of like piggy in the middle, except it uses a soft toy and there's really no 'middle', so it's either called just 'piggy', or (Mum's suggestion) 'kill your favourite toy'. To play this at home, tie a rope in a tree so that it hangs down, then tie a stuffed toy to the end. One person takes the toy and then swings it around, and everyone else tries to catch it. There's really no point to it, but that's not the point.

We must have looked like particularly dodgy people in the park. A guy drove up in a rubbish truck to empty the bin and said 'Buonosera' (good evening) to us. This was after another guy had walked past, seen us eating and said Bon appetito' (followed by something else that could have been 'that'll make you fat').